He is offering a promotion of buy three get one free if you use the promo code: RSNOV18

The weekend was characterised by very close racing in each of the seven fleets, right throughout the depth of the fleet. So the results have been carefully amended to correctly take account of the number of tie breaks this weekend.

Congratulations to the 2018 RS End of Seasons Regatta Hall of Fame:

Tom Morris and Guy Fillmore from Hayling Island SC for winning the RS All Classes Pursuit race in their RS800.

RS Aeros at the RS Classes End of Season Champs, Rutland SC, 3/4th November

by the RS Aero UK Class Association

A fabulous weekend of racing was had at Rutland, concluding both the RS Aero UK Southern and Northern Circuits. The varied and testing weekend gave a fitting finale to a busy year for the UK RS Aeros. A very windy Pursuit Race on Saturday, a great Saturday night gathering and then three calmer PY fleet races for the RS Aeros on Sunday all provided a great mix.

Craig Williamson (Staunton Harold) finished top RS Aero in the mass RS Classes pursuit race in his shiny new RS Aero 7. Steve Stewart (Yorkshire Dales) revelled in the strong gusts in his RS Aero 5 to take 2nd.

Sunday was a very different affair with light to medium breeze for the three PY races. The RS Aero 9s made their mark with Greg Bartlett (Starcross) nailing Race 1 from Chris Rust. Marshall King (Royal St George, IRE) was sailing his first RS Aero event in a charter RS Aero provided by RS Sailing and took Race 2 from Chis Larr (Northampton). In Race 3 Jeff Davison (Island Barn) and Chis Larr were tied for 1st after PY.

Ultimately Craig Williamson took the overall win on tie break from Marshall with Jeff taking 3rd. Chris Larr finished top RS Aero 9 in 4th and Steve Stewart led the RS Aero 5s in 8th. Top Lady was Emily Watson (Bowmoor).

Just a few weeks to catch our breath now before the RS Aero UK Winter Series kicks off at the Bowmoor Bubble on 1st December followed by the Lymington Christmas Stadium racing at the top of the river on the 8th December. Full details on the RS Aero UK Events List here; https://www.rsaerosailing.org/index.asp?p=events&rg=UK

RS300 End of Season Regatta

Last weekend 8 RS300s faced up to highly varied conditions at this year’s End of Season regatta at Rutland Water.

Chaos

Saturday greeted us with wind gusting the exciting side of 20knts and a 1h 43min pursuit race (2h for the RS Aero 5s). The course was a relatively simple triangle with a kink in the run (more on that soon) and a 1.7km beat.

The race started with Paul Watson leading to the first mark followed by Mark Cooper, James Phare, and Matt Pedlow. The run didnt take long to claim victims though, with Rob Ford, Matt and James getting collected by some wild offshore gusts, allowing Harry McVicar to catch up to 3rd.

At this point, the first prize needs to be awarded: A group Wooden Spoon for Paul, Mark, and Harry for having no idea where the second mark was (that kink in the run) and spending 2 or 3 minutes half way down the leg reaching, beating and generally confusing everybody trying to find it, before sodding it and going to the gybe mark. Luckily we had passed the 2nd mark en route, so no harm no foul, other than looking a bit silly.

After all that, Paul held his lead, Harry had got up to 2nd, and Matt was back upright and into 3rd.

Up the long beat, Paul suffered from a case of “Halyard giving up” giving symptoms of “sail a foot from the top of the mast” and “not going as fast as he should”, allowing Harry and Matt to catch up. Matt had a good run into the top mark and rolled Harry to take 2nd, before Harry retaking 2nd down the run. Cue typical light vs heavy, fast downwind vs fast upwind battle. Also cue Paul cutting his losses and pulling over onto the beach to pull his sail back up, putting Harry into 1st and Matt into 2nd.

This formation held for another lap, with Paul fixing his boat quickly enough to get into 3rd, just ahead of Mark in 4th.

On the final lap, Harry forgot to be quick downwind (matched by an RS Aero 5…) which left him as easy prey for Matt up the final beat, giving a final finishing order to a chaotic race of Matt, Harry, Paul, Mark, James and Cheryl, with Rob and John Turner retiring.

The evening's food and beer refuel took place in the club house, which was much improved with some new catering. Not quite the Wheatsheaf but the other 200 odd sailors booked it out all night. Sweaty…

Go left!

Sunday brought the polar opposite to Saturday, with fog across the lake, wind in single figures and 3 short races planned.

Race one saw Harry and Mark up front, closely followed by James and Matt, whose positions held with the main challenge being the swarms of RS Aeros we were lapping and the RS600s we had caught up.

Race two brought with it a bit more wind, requiring mild use of the toestraps for the whole fleet to the first mark, the sprint being won by James, closely followed by Harry and Mark. Harry passed James on the bottom reach, but James and Mark went hard left up the next beat and James reclaimed the lead. On the final beat Harry copied James and Mark from the previous lap, banging left and making a massive gain to claim the race, followed by Mark then James.

In race three Harry had seen the value of going left, did that off the line and did a horizon job. The next three positions were a close contest between James, Mark, and Matt. It was settled on the final beat as Mark and James clocked onto Harry's plan, went left and passed Matt.

That left Harry with three 1sts, Mark with three 2nds, and Matt with a 3rd and a 4th to count. Due to double points for the pursuit race this gave a podium of Harry, Matt, and Mark.

In the official prizes, Paul was the big winner getting some real silverware for winning the RS300 Rooster National Tour. Harry picked up RS300 End of Seasons champion and, as a result, 2nd in the national tour. Mark finally got his limited edition Rooster National Tour neck gaiter, as well as 5th in the national tour, and James claimed his neck gaiter, which is apparently a garment not a reptile.

Thanks to Rutland Sailing Club, the RS Class Association and Rooster Sailing for a great event and national tour.

Have a good off season everyone, and see you all in 2019!

By Harry McVicar

RS400 End of Seasons

Fleet: 20

Wind: Southerly 5-28knots

Of the 105 boats that chose to disregard the weekend’s weather forecast and head to the RS End of Season Regatta s at Rutland Water, 20 were RS400s.

Uncharacteristically for November it was easy to turn a blind eye to the strength of the breeze on the long morning drive as the Autumn sunshine, blue skies and striking auburn leaves provided some spectacular scenery as a distraction.

There’s nothing quite like sunshine to make the day feel more manageable and with shelter from the breeze at the bottom of the slope by the water’s edge we were all feeling pretty relaxed at the prospect of a ‘better than forecast’ day before we headed out for the first and only race of the day.

But it didn’t take long before the real conditions hit home. Within a minute or so of hoisting kites and heading out to the start area we found ourselves in a full-on foam-up as big gusts, well into the mid-twenties, swept across the lake as if the big man upstairs was opening and closing a giant heavenly door at the club end of the lake just for fun. And fun it certainly was, so long as you weren’t in the middle of a gybe at the time.

In a change to the normal EOS format, Saturday was a pursuit race while Sunday was three back to back races for each class.

Chasing smaller boats around the outside of a reservoir in a drag race that involves a surplus of two sail reaching and fetching is frequently the norm with pursuit racing and as a result isn’t always popular with everyone. But this course was different as the PRO set a slender shaped triangular course with a 2km beat, a similar length downwind slide and a taxing two sail reach across the bottom. The result was a race track which provided plenty of tactical opportunities, but with enough variety to satisfy most, if not all of the classes that were sailing. One to note for future pursuit races perhaps.

When it came to the racing, the breeze was typically in the high teens and low twenties. But with a few lulls down to around 12 knots and gusts peaking at 28 knots, it was a punchy, tiring day in which the mainsheet never got close to the jammer.

Nevertheless, if the changing room banter and tall stories at the bar were anything to go by the two hour race had been well received, particularly by the four RS800s that had smoked the fleet.

Of those in the RS400s who were entitled to spin good yarns were Michael Simms and Jack Holden [1488] who took a class bullet with ease. Behind them were Sam and John Knight [1202] in second and Adam Whitehouse and Chris Bowness [963] in third.

Continuing the meteorological misinformation theme, Sunday turned out to be a long way from what was advertised. Instead of breeze in the high teens and gusts in the low twenties, we were delivered peak gusts of 6-8 knots for the first of the three races. Tricky, shifty, puffy conditions with more snakes than ladders across the windward leeward course.

Once again Simms and Holden showed the fleet how fast you could make an RS400 go around the course by taking all three races, a dominant, unequivocal performance which handed them the overall title with a 1st as a discard.

Behind them the scrap for the podium was a closely fought affair with the Knight duo demonstrating that an evening at the bar was no hindrance to performance afloat as they scored two 4th and a 3rd to take second overall. Sean Cleary and Annalise Nixon demonstrated once again how comfortable they are in any kind of breeze to finish just two points behind in third.

With a wind range stretching from minimum to max, a long around the cans course and a series of windward leeward races, only tide and salt water could have provided more variety. For the last big shout of the season, this was surely spot on for which the Rutland race management team deserves a large share of the credit.

By Matthew Sheahan RS400 1435

RS600 EOS Report

There was quite a buzz leading up to the last event, in what has been a fantastic ‘comeback’ season for the class. A few notable absentees made way for some new to the circuit faces and all were welcomed by a breezy, busy and well organised Rutland sailing club.

Launching proved the first challenge of the day with an off shore breeze full of RS600 toppling gusts. The quick sail to the start line of the pursuit race gave an appropriate preview of what was to come with the RS600s immediately on the plane, dodging traffic and potentially quite scared.

With control lines jammed on full and mainsails ragging the fleet got away, some 23 minutes after the RS Aero 5s to chase those already racing round the half lap of the lake. Ian Jubb made the best of the start and the first small hitch to the windward mark rounding just ahead of George Smith with Alex Piggot chasing hard. Navigational confusion ensued with the tiny water proof maps, provided by the sailing club, rendered useless by the speed and spray of the first run. The fleet headed to the middle of the lake in search of the passing mark which would later be found much closer to shore as a result of the annual tidal ebb.

The first three names were the same at the leeward mark however the order had shifted. The bottom reach was another fast and furious ride on the edge of control for everyone in the fleet. The edge of control proved to be a fast way to travel as the first fleet to fall to the front runners were the RS300s. The next fleet on the list were the RS400s who were easy pickings uphill but proved very fast in the conditions on the long run.

The two hour race was hard graft given the conditions and the attrition rate was understandably high. The fleet became relatively spread out amongst the traffic of other classes. Hats off to all who finished in one piece especially to Ian Jubb who wasn’t his usual bar propping self, due to man flu, and to Mark Healing who battled around the course in what is one of his first circuit appearances.

The fleet retired to the shore, most barely able to pull boats up the slipway and the club did a cracking job of putting on food and stocking the bar.

Sunday dawned with a drizzling mist, some sore heads and a very different prospect with a light and shifty breeze. The first of three back to back races was a tense affair without the excitement of trapezeing, most were left hugging the foredeck. Ian Marshall showed the most guise and cunning to climb the most ladders, dodge the most snakes and most importantly avoid the slow moving herd of RSAeros. Michael Iszatt steered his famous yellow most to a close second followed by a very respectable 3rd for Mark.

The breeze fortunately started to build for race two. The committee boat end was unusually hotly contested; even more unusual were turns for Michael after trying his luck and having the door shut hard by Alex. This marks a step change in the quality of the racing from last season where starts were certainly less competitive. The whole fleet were now powered up towards the windward mark and George Smith made the best of the first beat to sneak around just in the lead. The reach however was still a ‘sit in job’ and allowed the wide winged of the fleet to pressure those pushing a bit more water. Again RS Aero dodging was the name of the game and mark roundings were the make and break of your race. National’s race winner and easily the fleet’s youngest Chris Haslam showed the same form to sneak to the front ahead of Ian and Alex.

So the points were tight going into the 3rd race with three who could potentially still win although no-one in the fleet knew that as the pursuit race was a double point affair and beyond our maths skills. Again the start was hotly contested and again George rounded the windward mark in first just ahead of Chris whose high risk crash tack at the windward mark cost him the potential lead. Michael, Alex and George all battled hard to get to the front and stay there. Ultimately it was Michael who made the best of the last run to take a well-deserved win. George had done enough to hold onto 2nd place which as maths would have it was also enough for the win overall. Alex a close 3rd, secured 2nd overall as reward for a season of hard practice in the boat.

It certainly was a weekend of two halves with survival Saturday and a sedate Sunday! A big thank you to Rutland Sailing Club who clearly put in a lot of work and effort to host the challenging 103 boat pursuit race and some quality fleet races too. Thank you too to Rooster sailing who kindly sponsored the national tour this year and offered up very generous prizes and support.

The final thank you is to all of those that have helped get the class back on their feet this season: the class association, sponsors, the committee, especially Ian Montague and to those that keep coming back to sail, what is undoubtedly a great boat.

Here’s to an even better 2019 season! See you on the water maybe even in a BRAND NEW RS600!!

Watch this space.

Report by George Smith

RS800s rule the waves but can't wave the rules!

The RS800s joined the RS Aeros, RS200s, RS300s, RS400s, RS500s, and RS600s at Rutland for the End of Season Regatta on a weekend where Hurricane Oscar was sent over the water by the Trump administration. In the end the winds were big but not too big to put off the fleet of 100 plus boats.

Saturday started with the now traditional RS pursuit race. The race officer for the weekend explained the course, a P or b course depending how you looked at it with a 2 km beat. A few groans from the non-trapeze boats but the hardy RS800 contingent were licking their lips at the prospects of sailing past 95 boats. The RS Aero fleet had gone through the start line and were already on lap two before the RS800s started. Port tack experts Ralph and Sophie Singleton had wrongly believed the race officer when he said it would be a fetch to the first mark leaving the very obvious port tack flyer to Luke and Emma McEwen, and Peter Barton and Chris Feibusch. Now the fun started: kites up, accelerate to 20 + knots and hope you can find the gybe mark. However mark w was not to be seen by just about the whole fleet. Peter and Chris ended up on the other side of the lake with a beat to the next mark whilst Ralph and Sophie gave up the hunt half way and gybed back hoping they had gone round the mark but just missed it amongst all the spray. National Champions Tom Morrisand Guy Fillmore gave everyone a head start but were soon chasing down the McEwens. By this time Peter and Chris had given up finding mark W and went for a practice. Hugh Shone and Hannah Tattersall managed to pass Ralph and Sophie and then all four leading RS800s had overtaken the entire RS fleet. Just before the finish after a gruelling one hour and 25 mins Luke and Emma succumbed to a capsize down the tricky two sail reach leaving Tom and Guy to take the victory. After everyone returned to shore Peter reached for the rule book on the basis of not being able to find mark W which Ralph and Sophie finally discovered on lap four almost on the shore after the dry hot Summer had emptied half the lake. Unfortunately for Peter and Chris the rule waving was to no avail.

Saturday night saw the RS800s reconvene at the Wheatsheaf although on that occasion the RS400s had beaten them to it. A very enjoyable meal was finished off by some excellent cake which Debbie Clark and Dan Goodman had provided for Dan’s birthday.

Sunday dawned with some light drizzle and considerably less wind. Three races were planned on a w/l course to be shared with the RS200s, RS400s and RS500s. The wind was very variable which kept racing very close amongst the top seven. Tom and Guy even commented that it was perhaps the closest racing they had had all year. Luke and Emma won the first race from Peter and Chris after birthday boy Dan with Debbie led the fleet round the first mark. Tom and Guy won the second race from Ralph and Sophie who were left frustrated by a bunch of RS200s who had blocked the route out to the favoured right-hand side at time when they had a comfortable lead. So the last race was all to play for. Luke and Emma needed to win the race to win the event. After much place changing amongst the top six it all came down the last run. Tom and Guy went to what had generally been the favoured left-hand side whilst Luke went left of centre and Peter picked up a nice puff down the right-hand side. Unfortunately for Tom and Guy they ran out of wind to finish 3rd and Peter and Chris could not quite pip the McEwens who held their nerve to take the final bullet and the event. Tom and Guy finished second on count back although Sailwave could not cope with the double counting non-excludable pursuit race on Saturday. Ralph and Sophie finished off the podium in third.

Now it was down to RS800 Class Association Secretary Clare Sargent to use all her magic to calculate the results of the Rooster National Tour held over 8 events. Having had a knee op over the winter Luke was a little slow out of the blocks leaving Ralph and Sophie as early leaders after wins at the light air events at Rutland and Datchet. Tim Gratton and Fiona Hampshire cleaned up at Parkstone. Luke and Emma won the other three sea events at Stokes Bay, Beer and Eastbourne (home of the 2019 National Championships and after this year's event renamed “Garda by the Sea”). The McEwens then completed the season in style with wins at Grafham and Rutland to become the Rooster RS800 2018 National Tour Champions. Ralph and Sophie were second, Tom and Guy third, Hugh and Hannah 4th, and Dan and Debbie 5th. Rooster limited edition national tour neck gaitors will be seen by all the best dressed sailors this Winter.

There have been a lot of new boats joining the fleet recently. Francis Peters and Tom Partington could be the team to watch next year after an impressive 3rd at Grafham whilst the Facebook group “RS800 sailing” is active with lots of tips and videos from Tom Morris (this year's national champion) showing all how to buy an old boat, do it up and then dominate the event at Weymouth. For those hardy souls there is the Selden Sailjuice series over the Winter before we all assemble again at Rutland on the 23rd March 2019. 2019 is a Garda year so get a boat, get Tom’s YouTube videos, ferry tickets and we will see you all in Torbole!

Finally 2019 will see the 20th anniversary national championship at Eastbourne Sovereign SC 5-8 September. Your correspondent has sailed 14 of those starting at Plymouth in 2004. The RS800 Class Association would like to get in touch with everyone who has competed in at least one event. We are planning a big party and a one day event which will form part of the championships for everyone who wants to relive those great events and can get their hands on a boat. Please contact the Association via the website if you would like to find out more details. Keep the weekend of the 7-8 September 2019 free.